The Eye of the Storm
by BubbleXGumXPink
Summary: Ariadne, Arthur and the rest of the team fall into momentary peace after the successful job on Fischer, their lives returning to normality, or as close to. just when they thought they were safe they are again shoved back into the world of Architects and point men, extractors and forgers and most important of all: Dreams. A/A of course.
1. Chapter 1

**A/N: welcome to my new story! This is my first Inception fanfic and so many characters may seem slightly ooc but bear with me (and review, that always helps ;) ) and this should steadily get better as I write the chapters.**

**Enjoy! **

**Disclaimer: I do not own Inception or its characters. If I did I wouldn't be sitting here in the dark like some strange nocturnal creature writing this.**

**oO0Oo**

Ariadne was lost. That was the only thing she could think at that moment. She was standing at the entrance to LAX straight after the job. She was lost because the job was done and she had no idea what to do now. She was now making her way robotically towards a taxi, suitcase dragging behind her. Without noticing what was going on she was in the back of the taxi staring ahead, lost in daydreams. The driver snapped his fingers in front of her face impatiently.

'Hey Miss, where you goin'?' he asked and she turned to him with eyes still glazed over with a distant look.

'I-uh- nicest hotel you can find please.' He nodded and pulled away from the airport. For a few fleeting seconds, as they exited the airport car park, Ariadne thought she saw Arthur but by the time she turned around it was too late. She sat back down and sighed.

As LA flashed past Ariadne found herself replaying the past ten hours, each time one particular moment was stuck on replay: the kiss. Her cheeks suddenly felt warm and she turned her attention to the buildings knowing that at any normal time she'd be transfixed by the architecture of the area. Eventually the taxi slowed to stop.

'Is this to your liking?' the driver asked, turning to look at her. Ariadne nodded and handed over more than enough money to pay for the journey. Glad to be doing something she headed up the steps to the hotel, suitcase trundling along behind.

The hotel had an old style stone exterior with a band of detailed stone carvings above the double glass paned doors. The hotels name was fashioned out of black stained iron reading 'The Black Swan' and was fixed to the wall just below the first floor windows. The hotel did not look like a five star, nor did it look posh with a target audience of the rich and powerful and Ariadne preferred it that way.

Inside the main lobby was bright and clean with a small reception desk in the centre. There were two elevators on the left and a stairwell to the right. Behind the reception desk was an open archway that appeared to lead to ground floor rooms.

Ariadne walked up to the desk, dropping the suitcase next to her.

'How can I help?' a young woman asked, a professional smile held in place from years of practice.

'Erm can I get a room please? For two nights?'

'Of course, any particular level?' Ariadne shook her head, 'just for one?' nodding this time. The woman tapped away at her computer. She then ducked her head below the desk and resurfaced holding a key with a small white piece of plastic attached. Ariadne raised her eyebrows.

'Ah, we get that reaction a lot.' The woman smiled genuinely, 'but we like tradition around here.' She handed the key over. 'You're in room 27 on third floor, have a nice stay.'

Ariadne nodded and once again grabbed her suitcase, pulling it towards the elevators. She watched as a black haired, suited man got in one of the elevators and she quickened her pace. The doors were sliding shut as she called out.

'Hey! Hold the doors!'

The man instantly stuck out his foot causing the lift doors to reopen as she ran into the lift. She doubled over panting from running with the weight of her suitcase. She could feel the man's eyes on her and she eventually managed to puff out a thanks. She felt his eyes on her a little longer before spoke.

'Ariadne?'

She froze, panic flooding through her. Was she followed? Was it Fischer or one of his men? But she knew that voice. She slowly looked up, hardly daring to believe.

'Arthur? What are you doing here? Is it safe to be talking?'

'In here, yes or in a room and funnily enough I'm also here for a place to stay.' He replied part serious part joking. Ariadne smiled.

'Right, so what now? I can't stay here, seeing you about but not able to talk, I just couldn't do that.'

'You won't. Look, meet me in the morning at nine by reception. Pretend we have never talked but as if we recognise each other from the flight. I will ask you grab a coffee with me and then we should be safe, anyone following us would think nothing of it.'

The elevator door pinged and Arthur stepped off onto fourth floor.

'I'm in room 32 by the way.' He said over his shoulder before the elevator doors slid shut and he was gone.

oO0Oo

**Thank you for reading and I hope you enjoyed this first, although admittedly quite short, chapter. More A/A in the next chapter I promise! **

**Bubbles out! **


	2. Chapter 2

Ariadne woke early the next morning to the sun slanting in through a gap in the curtains and gently pooling on her face. When she'd found her room the previous night it had taken a lot of effort just to stand upright in the shower. She'd been so tired that she had hastily drawn the curtains and thrown herself across the neat cream sheets of the bed, falling asleep as soon as her head hit the pillow. The consequences of this she now found was extremely messy hair from going to sleep with it still wet and being woken by bright sunlight in her eyes.

Slowly Ariadne extracted herself from the mess of sheets she'd created and headed into the bathroom. Looking at her reflection she noticed dark circles under her eyes and how pale her face was. Having to work so hard on this job there had been little time for proper rest or sleep and her face was beginning to show it.

Exiting the bathroom Ariadne grabbed her suitcase from the floor where she had dumped it the night before and pulled several things from it including a fresh set of clothes, a hairbrush, elastic band and some basic make-up and finally a dark green scarf embroidered with delicate silver and gold flowers.

By the time she found herself presentable with her tied back in a rough bun and scarf tied tightly around her neck it was ten to nine. She left the room with just her phone and purse, locking the door behind her although it wouldn't matter: if someone wanted to get in her room they'd simply break the door down. She took the stairs to give Arthur time to get there first and as she walked she found herself thinking; did Arthur want to see her as much as she him? Or had the kiss simply been what he'd said it was: a distraction. Her pace quickened until she took the stairs two at a time and landed awkwardly at the bottom, lurching forward as her foot caught on the bottom step. She looked up and her face burned bright red as everyone stared at her including Arthur who was standing to the side of the Reception desk.

Ariadne walked forward with exaggerated purpose, avoiding the gaze of everyone in the main lobby. She approached the front desk where a different woman stood from the previous night.

'Um excuse me; I don't suppose you could tell me where the nearest café is?'

'I think there's one just round the corner to the left when you exit the hotel.' The woman replied, gesturing in that direction.

'Okay thank you.'

Ariadne turned and walked away without looking at Arthur. She had barely taken two steps when she heard his voice from behind her.

'Hey! Excuse me miss but I couldn't help but notice you were on the same flight as me yesterday weren't you?'

She looked up at him to see he was smiling, a rare occasion for Arthur. She found herself smiling back and answering.

'Oh, yes I think so, you sat across the aisle from me didn't you?' he nodded as she yawned loudly.

'I'm so sorry, it seems even in first class you can't get a wink of sleep I could probably do with a nice coffee or something.' This gave Arthur the cue to bring the pretend conversation to an end as they'd agreed.

'Well I was about to go and grab one myself, would you like to join me?' he asked courteously and she accepted, following him out of the hotel and onto the busy LA streets.

As soon as they stepped out their false identities were dropped and they were no longer strangers to one another. Following the directions the receptionist gave Ariadne they soon found a small coffee shop and sat at a table at the back.

'Do you know where the others have gone?' Ariadne asked out of need for something to talk about.

'Eames, being who is, is probably back in Mombasa or at least somewhere he can gamble and other such things. Cobb will be home with his kids by now and Yusuf I haven't worked with before but he's probably home with that cat of his. Ariadne, what happened in Limbo?'

'I, erm, could we not talk about the job or Limbo? Please?' she replied hastily with a look of desperation that Arthur could understand. Whatever had happened was probably not for Ariadne to say and if she was anything like him she'd want to move on from the job and get back to some sort of reality. He nodded as a waitress took their orders.

'So where would you normally be going? Family or..?' Ariadne asked after a while, realising she'd never thought to ask if he might have family or even a girlfriend, though secretly she'd hoped he didn't have one.

'Ah Stateside; my Sister lives there and I have no one else so it's either that or go and hide out somewhere else. What about you? Are you going back to College or something else?'

'Hmm, I should probably go back to college, graduate and get a normal job but as you said yourself there's nothing quite like it. I don't think I could go back to a normal life, not easily anyway plus if I did is there any guarantee I'd ever see you guys again?' she looked down into the murky brown of her coffee with a sad half-smile. Over past few weeks she had come to think of the team as her friends, even family and she could see in his face that she was right.

There was a moment of silence and then he spoke, 'Well… you could, and I can't believe I'm saying this when it would put you in immeasurable amounts of danger, become a permanent member of the 'team' which is currently just me now that Cobb's probably quit. This would mean that on any job that crops up we'd be basically a 'package' so to speak and if one of us was hired the other would automatically be hired too.' Again, silence. They were both thinking hard and didn't even notice when they lifted their mugs simultaneously.

'Sounds like a plan, I'm still going to have to get back to Paris whatever I do: my flat and everything is there and I'd have to officially leave the college. Professor Miles will be upset.' Guilt tinged her voice at the last sentence and she gazed at her hands.

Ariadne looked up and noticed Arthur looking past her to the other side of the café.

'What are you looking at?' Arthur looked back at her, seriousness edging his eyes.

'Look round – slowly! That guy in the suit, I think he followed us. He keeps looking in our direction. Come on let's get out of here.'

Standing up Arthur dropped five dollars on the table and they head out of the café and back onto the busy streets of LA and turned left. They were just walking past an alleyway when Arthur grabbed Ariadne and pulled her into the dark side street and crouched behind an industrial bin. 5 minutes later the suited man walked past. Ariadne found herself struggling to breathe and realised Arthur had her pulled tight against him with his arm wrapped around her stomach. He hadn't noticed.

'Ah-Arthur,' she gasped, 'I can't breathe!' and suddenly he released her muttering 'sorry' before standing up and offering his hand to her.

'We need to change Hotels, I don't where this man has come from but I'm willing to bet he's not here to make friends.'

A/N: hey there people! I hope you guys enjoyed this latest chapter and if you did please review as I like knowing whether my writing is any good and of course this fuels my writing so thank you everyone who reviewed the previous chapter :D

Also if anyone is wondering where I got the idea of Arthur having family in Stateside (although if anyone could enlighten me as to where exactly that is I would be grateful, I live in England so :P) I got it from the part in the film where they're about to get on the helicopter and Cobb asks Arthur where he's going and he replies 'stateside' to which Cobb then says 'oh, send my regards.' Which implies (to me anyway) that Arthur has family or something there

Bubbles out!


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